General scientific methods in historical research. Abstract "methods of historical research"

With all the variety of research approaches, there are certain general research principles, such as systematicity, objectivity, and historicism.

The methodology of historical research is the technique by which methodology is implemented in historical research.

In Italy, during the Renaissance, a scientific research apparatus began to take shape, and a system of footnotes was first introduced.

In the process of processing specific historical material, the researcher needs to use various research methods. The word “method” translated from Greek means “way, way.” Methods of scientific research are ways of obtaining scientific information in order to establish regular connections, relationships, dependencies and construct scientific theories. Research methods are the most dynamic element of science.

Any scientific-cognitive process consists of three components: the object of knowledge - the past, the knowing subject - the historian, and the method of knowledge. Through the method, the scientist understands the problem, event, era being studied. The volume and depth of new knowledge depend, first of all, on the effectiveness of the methods used. Of course, each method can be applied correctly or incorrectly, i.e. the method itself does not guarantee the acquisition of new knowledge, but without it no knowledge is possible. Therefore, one of the most important indicators of the level of development of historical science is research methods, their diversity and cognitive effectiveness.

There are many classifications of scientific research methods.

One of the common classifications involves dividing them into three groups: general scientific, special and special scientific:

• general scientific methods used in all sciences. These are mainly methods and techniques of formal logic, such as: analysis, synthesis, deduction, induction, hypothesis, analogy, modeling, dialectics, etc.;
• special methods used in many sciences. The most common ones include: functional approach, systems approach, structural approach, sociological and statistical methods. The use of these methods allows us to more deeply and reliably reconstruct the picture of the past and systematize historical knowledge;
• private scientific methods have not universal, but applied significance and are used only in specific science.

In historical science, one of the most authoritative in Russian historiography is the classification proposed in the 1980s. Academician I.D. Kovalchenko. The author has been fruitfully studying this problem for more than 30 years. His monograph “Methods of Historical Research” is a major work, which for the first time in Russian literature provides a systematic presentation of the basic methods of historical knowledge. Moreover, this is done in organic connection with the analysis of the main problems of historical methodology: the role of theory and methodology in scientific knowledge, the place of history in the system of sciences, historical source and historical fact, structure and levels of historical research, methods of historical science, etc. Among the main methods of historical knowledge Kovalchenko I.D. refers:

• historical-genetic;
• historical-comparative;
• historical-typological;
• historical-systemic.

Let's consider each of these methods separately.

Historical-genetic method is one of the most common in historical research. Its essence lies in the consistent disclosure of the properties, functions and changes of the reality being studied in the process of its historical movement. This method allows you to come closest to reproducing the real history of the research object. In this case, the historical phenomenon is reflected in the most concrete form. Cognition proceeds sequentially from the individual to the particular, and then to the general and universal. By nature, the genetic method is analytical-inductive, and in the form of expressing information it is descriptive. The genetic method makes it possible to show cause-and-effect relationships, patterns of historical development in their immediacy, and to characterize historical events and personalities in their individuality and imagery.

Historical-comparative method has also long been used in historical research. It is based on comparisons - an important method of scientific knowledge. Not a single scientific study is complete without comparison. The objective basis for comparison is that the past is a repeating, internally determined process. Many phenomena are identical or similar internally

their essence and differ only in spatial or temporal variation of forms. And the same or similar forms can express different content. Therefore, in the process of comparison, the opportunity opens up to explain historical facts and reveal their essence.

This feature of the comparative method was first embodied by the ancient Greek historian Plutarch in his “biographies.” A. Toynbee sought to discover as many laws as possible that applied to any society, and sought to compare everything. It turned out that Peter I was Akhenaten’s double, the era of Bismarck was a repetition of the era of Sparta during the time of King Cleomenes. A condition for the productive use of the comparative historical method is the analysis of single-order events and processes.

• 1. The initial stage of comparative analysis is analogy. It does not involve analysis, but the transfer of ideas from object to object. (Bismarck and Garibaldi played prominent roles in unifying their countries).
• 2. Identification of the essential and content characteristics of what is being studied.
• 3. Reception of typology (Prussian and American type of development of capitalism in agriculture).

The comparative method is also used as a means of developing and verifying hypotheses. On its basis it is possible retroalternative-vistics. History as a retro-story assumes the ability to move in time in two directions: from the present and its problems (and at the same time the experience accumulated up to this time) to the past, and from the beginning of an event to its ending. This introduces into history the search for causality, an element of stability and strength that should not be underestimated: the end point is given, and the historian starts from there in his work. This does not eliminate the risk of delusional constructs, but at least it is minimized. The history of an event is actually a completed social experiment. It can be observed from indirect evidence, hypotheses can be built, and they can be tested. A historian can offer all kinds of interpretations of the French Revolution, but in any case, all his explanations have a common invariant to which they must be reduced: the revolution itself. So the flight of fancy has to be restrained. In this case, the comparative method is used as a means of developing and verifying hypotheses. Otherwise, this technique is called retro-alternativeism. Imagining a different development of history is the only way to find the reasons for real history. Raymond Aron called for rationally weighing the possible causes of certain events by comparing what was possible: “If I say that Bismarck’s decision was the cause of the war of 1866... ​​then I mean that without the chancellor’s decision the war would not have started (or at least would not have started at that moment)” 1. Actual causality is revealed only by comparison with what was possible. Any historian, in order to explain what was, asks the question of what could have been. To carry out such a gradation, we take one of these antecedents, mentally consider it non-existent or modified, and try to reconstruct or imagine what would have happened in this case. If you have to admit that the phenomenon under study would have been different in the absence of this factor (or in the event that it were not so), we conclude that this antecedent is one of the causes of some part of the phenomenon-effect, namely that part of it. parts in which we had to assume changes. Thus, logical research includes the following operations: 1) division of the phenomenon-consequence; 2) establishing a gradation of antecedents and identifying the antecedent whose influence we have to evaluate; 3) constructing a surreal course of events; 4) comparison between speculative and real events.

If, when examining the causes of the Great French Revolution, we want to weigh the importance of various economic (the crisis of the French economy at the end of the 18th century, the poor harvest of 1788), social (the rise of the bourgeoisie, the reaction of the nobility), and political (the financial crisis of the monarchy, the resignation of Turgot) factors , there can be no other solution than to consider all these different causes one by one, supposing that they might have been different, and trying to imagine the course of events that might follow in that case. As M. Weber says, in order to “untangle real causal relationships, we create unreal ones.” Such “imaginary experience” is the only way for the historian not only to identify causes, but also to unravel, weigh them, as M. Weber and R. Aron put it, that is, to establish their hierarchy.

Historical-typological method, like all other methods, has its own objective basis. It consists in the fact that in the socio-historical process, on the one hand, the individual particular, the general and the universal are closely interconnected, on the one hand, they differ. Therefore, an important task of understanding historical phenomena and revealing their essence becomes the identification of that unity that was inherent in the diversity of certain combinations of the individual (single). The past in all its manifestations is a continuous dynamic process. It is not a simple sequential flow of events, but a replacement of one qualitative state by another, it has its own significantly different stages, the identification of these stages is also

an important task in the study of historical development. The first step in the work of a historian is to compile a chronology. The second step is periodization. The historian cuts history into periods and replaces the continuity of time with some semantic structure. The relationships of discontinuity and continuity are revealed: continuity occurs within periods, discontinuity occurs between periods.

Particular varieties of the historical-typological method are: the method of periodization (allows us to identify a number of stages in the development of various social phenomena) and the structural-diachronic method (aimed at studying historical processes at different times, allows us to identify the duration and frequency of various events).

Historical-systemic method allows us to understand the internal mechanisms of the functioning of social systems. The systems approach is one of the main methods used in historical science, since society (and an individual) is a complexly organized system. The basis for the application of this method in history is the unity in the socio-historical development of the individual, the special and the general. In reality and concretely, this unity appears in historical systems of different levels. The functioning and development of societies includes and synthesizes those basic components that make up historical reality. These components include individual unique events (for example, the birth of Napoleon), historical situations (for example, the Great French Revolution) and processes (the influence of the idea and events of the French Revolution on Europe). It is obvious that all these events and processes are not only causally determined and have cause-and-effect relationships, but are also functionally interconnected. The task of system analysis, which includes structural and functional methods, is to give a complete, comprehensive picture of the past.

The concept of a system, like any other cognitive tool, describes some ideal object. From the point of view of its external properties, this ideal object acts as a set of elements between which certain relationships and connections are established. Thanks to them, a set of elements turns into a coherent whole. In turn, the properties of a system turn out to be not just the sum of the properties of its individual elements, but are determined by the presence and specificity of the connection and relationships between them. The presence of connections and relationships between elements and the integrative connections generated by them, the integral properties of the system ensure the relatively independent separate existence, functioning and development of the system.

The system as a relatively isolated integrity is opposed to the environment. In fact, the concept of environment is implicit (if there is no environment, then there will be no system) contained in the concept of the system as an integrity, the system is relatively isolated from the rest of the world, which acts as the environment.

The next step in a meaningful description of the properties of the system is to fix its hierarchical structure. This system property is inextricably linked with the potential divisibility of system elements and the presence for each system of a variety of connections and relationships. The fact of the potential divisibility of system elements means that system elements can be considered as special systems.

Essential properties of the system:

• from the point of view of internal structure, any system has appropriate orderliness, organization and structure;
• the functioning of the system is subject to certain laws inherent in this system; at any given moment the system is in a certain state; a successive set of states constitutes its behavior.

The internal structure of the system is described using the following concepts: “set”; "element"; "attitude"; "property"; "connection"; "channels of connection"; "interaction"; "integrity"; "subsystem"; "organization"; "structure"; “leading part of the system”; "subsystem; decision maker”; hierarchical structure of the system."

The specific properties of the system are characterized through the following features: “isolation”; "interaction"; "integration"; "differentiation"; "centralization"; "decentralization"; "Feedback"; "equilibrium"; "control"; "self-regulation"; "self management"; "competition".

The behavior of the system is determined through such concepts as: “environment”; "activity"; "functioning"; "change"; "adaptation"; "height"; "evolution"; "development"; "genesis"; "education".

Modern research uses many methods designed to extract information from sources, process it, systematize and construct theories and historical concepts. Sometimes the same method (or its variations) is described by different authors under different names. An example is the descriptive-narrative - ideographic - descriptive - narrative method.

Exploratory-narrative method (ideographic) - a scientific method used in all socio-historical and natural sciences and ranking first in terms of breadth of application. Requires compliance with a number of requirements:

• a clear understanding of the chosen subject of study;
• sequence of description;
• systematization, grouping or classification, characteristics of the material (qualitative, quantitative) in accordance with the research task.

Among other scientific methods, the descriptive-narrative method is the original one. To a large extent, it determines the success of work using other methods, which usually “look through” the same material in new aspects.

A prominent representative of narrative in historical science was the famous German scientist L. von Ranke (1795-1886), who, after graduating from the University of Leipzig, where he studied classical philology and theology, became interested in reading the novels of W. Scott, O. Thierry and other authors, after which began to study history and published a number of works that were a resounding success. Among them are “History of the Roman and Germanic Peoples”, “Sovereigns and Peoples of Southern Europe in the 16th-17th Centuries”, “The Popes, Their Church and State in the 16th and 17th Centuries”, 12 books on Prussian history.

In works of a source study nature, the following are often used:

• conventional documentary and grammatical-diplomatic methods, those. methods of dividing text into component elements are used to study office work and office documents;
• methods of textual criticism. For example, logical analysis of the text allows you to interpret various “dark” places, identify contradictions in the document, existing gaps, etc. The use of these methods makes it possible to identify missing (destroyed) documents and reconstruct various events;
• historical-political analysis allows you to compare information from various sources, recreate the circumstances of the political struggle that gave rise to the documents, and specify the composition of the participants who adopted this or that act.

In historiographical studies, the following are often used:

Chronological method- focusing on the analysis of the movement towards scientific thoughts, changes in concepts, views and ideas in chronological order, which makes it possible to reveal the patterns of accumulation and deepening of historiographic knowledge.

Problem-chronological method involves the division of broad topics into a number of narrow problems, each of which is considered in chronological order. This method is used both when studying the material (at the first stage of analysis, together with methods of systematization and classification), and when arranging it and presenting it within the text of a work on history.

Periodization method- is aimed at highlighting individual stages in the development of historical science in order to discover the leading directions of scientific thought and identify new elements in its structure.

Method of retrospective (return) analysis allows us to study the process of movement of the thoughts of historians from the present to the past in order to identify elements of strictly preserved knowledge in our days, to verify the conclusions of previous historical research and the data of modern science. This method is closely related to the “remnants” method, i.e. a method of reconstructing objects that have gone into the past based on the remains that have survived and reached the modern historian of the era. The researcher of primitive society E. Taylor (1832-1917) used ethnographic material.

Prospective analysis method determines promising directions and topics for future research based on an analysis of the level achieved by modern science and using knowledge of the patterns of development of historiography.

Modeling- This is the reproduction of the characteristics of an object on another object specially created for its study. The second of the objects is called the model of the first. Modeling is based on a certain correspondence (but not identity) between the original and its model. There are 3 types of models: analytical, statistical, simulation. Models are resorted to in case of a lack of sources or, conversely, a saturation of sources. For example, in the computer center of the USSR Academy of Sciences, a model of the ancient Greek polis was created.

Methods of mathematical statistics. Statistics arose in the second half of the 17th century. in England. In historical science, statistical methods began to be used in the 19th century. Events subject to statistical processing must be homogeneous; quantitative and qualitative characteristics must be studied in unity.

There are two types of statistical analysis:

• 1) descriptive statistics;
• 2) sample statistics (used in the absence of complete information and gives a probabilistic conclusion).

Among the many statistical methods we can highlight: the method of correlation analysis (establishes a relationship between two variables, a change in one of them depends not only on the second, but also on chance) and entropy analysis (entropy is a measure of the diversity of a system) - allows you to track social connections in small ( up to 20 units) groups that do not obey probable statistical patterns. For example, academician I.D. Kovalchenko subjected the tables of zemstvo household censuses of the post-reform period to mathematical processing and revealed the degree of stratification among estates and communities.

Method of terminological analysis. The terminological apparatus of sources borrows its subject content from life. The connection between language changes and changes in social relations has long been established. A brilliant application of this method can be found in

F. Engels “Frankish dialect” 1, where he, having analyzed the movement of consonants in words with the same root, established the boundaries of German dialects and drew conclusions about the nature of tribal migration.

A variation is toponymic analysis - geographical names. Anthroponymic analysis - name formation and name creation.

Content analysis- a method of quantitative processing of large amounts of documents, developed in American sociology. Its use makes it possible to identify the frequency of occurrence of characteristics of interest to the researcher in the text. Based on them, one can judge the intentions of the author of the text and the possible reactions of the addressee. The units are a word or a theme (expressed through modifier words). Content analysis involves at least 3 stages of research:

• dividing the text into semantic units;
• counting the frequency of their use;
• interpretation of text analysis results.

Content analysis can be used in the analysis of periodic

prints, questionnaires, complaints, personal (court, etc.) files, biographies, census forms or lists in order to identify any trends by counting the frequency of repeating characteristics.

In particular, D.A. Gutnov applied the method of content analysis when analyzing one of the works of P.N. Milyukova. The researcher identified the most frequently occurring text units in the famous “Essays on the History of Russian Culture” by P.N. Miliukov, constructing graphs based on them. Recently, statistical methods have been actively used to construct a collective portrait of historians of the post-war generation.

Media analysis algorithm:

• 1) the degree of objectivity of the source;
• 2) number and volume of publications (dynamics by year, percentage);
• 3) authors of the publication (readers, journalists, military personnel, political workers, etc.);
• 4) frequency of occurring value judgments;
• 5) tone of publications (neutral informational, panegyric, positive, critical, negatively emotionally charged);
• 6) frequency of use of artistic, graphic and photographic materials (photos, caricatures);
• 7) ideological goals of the publication;
• 8) dominant themes.

Semiotics(from Greek - sign) - a method of structural analysis of sign systems, a discipline dealing with the comparative study of sign systems.

The foundations of semiotics were developed in the early 1960s. in the USSR Yu.M. Lotman, V.A. Uspensky, B.A. Uspensky, Yu.I. Levin, B.M. Gasparov, who founded the Moscow-Tartu semiotic school. A laboratory on history and semiotics was opened at the University of Tartu, which was active until the early 1990s. Lotman's ideas have found application in linguistics, philology, cybernetics, information systems, art theory, etc. The starting point of semiotics is the idea that the text is a space in which the semiotic character of a literary work is realized as an artifact. For a semiotic analysis of a historical source, it is necessary to reconstruct the code used by the creator of the text and establish their correlation with the codes used by the researcher. The problem is that the fact conveyed by the author of the source is the result of choosing from the mass of surrounding events an event that, in his opinion, has meaning. The use of this technique is effective in the analysis of various rituals: from everyday rituals to state rituals 1. As an example of the application of the semiotic method, one can cite the study of Lotman Yu.M. “Conversations about Russian culture. Life and traditions of the Russian nobility (XVIII - early XIX centuries)", in which the author examines such significant rituals of noble life as a ball, matchmaking, marriage, divorce, duel, Russian dandyism, etc.

Modern research uses methods such as: discourse analysis method(analysis of text phrases and its vocabulary through discourse markers); "dense description" method(not a simple description, but an interpretation of various interpretations of ordinary events); narrative history method"(considering familiar things as incomprehensible, unknown); case study method (study of a unique object or extreme event).

The explosion of interview material into historical research as a source led to the formation of Oral History. Working with interview texts required historians to develop new methods.

Construction method. It consists in the fact that the researcher studies as many autobiographies as possible from the point of view of the problem he is studying. When reading autobiographies, the researcher gives them a certain interpretation based on some general scientific theory. Elements of autobiographical descriptions become “bricks” for him, from which he constructs a picture of the phenomena under study. Autobiographies provide facts for constructing a general picture, which are related to each other according to consequences or hypotheses arising from the general theory.

Method of examples (illustrative). This method is a variation of the previous one. It consists of illustrating and confirming certain theses or hypotheses with examples selected from autobiographies. Using the method of illustrations, the researcher looks for confirmation of his ideas in them.

Typological analysis- consists in identifying certain types of personalities, behavior, patterns and patterns of life in the social groups under study. To do this, autobiographical material is subjected to a certain cataloging and classification, usually with the help of theoretical concepts, and all the wealth of reality described in biographies is reduced to several types.

Statistical processing. This type of analysis is aimed at establishing the dependence of various characteristics of the authors of autobiographies and their positions and aspirations, as well as the dependence of these characteristics on various properties of social groups. Such measurements are useful, in particular, in cases where the researcher compares the results of studying autobiographies with the results obtained by other methods.

Methods used in local studies:

• excursion method: travel to the study area, acquaintance with the architecture and landscape. Locus - place - is not a territory, but a community of people engaged in specific activities, united by a connecting factor. In its original understanding, an excursion is a scientific lecture of a motor (moving) nature, in which the element of literature is reduced to a minimum. The main place in it is occupied by the feelings of the tourist, and the information is of a commentary nature;
• the method of complete immersion in the past involves long-term residence in the region in order to penetrate the atmosphere of the place and more fully understand the people inhabiting it. This approach is very close in views to the psychological hermeneutics of V. Dilthey. It is possible to reveal the individuality of a city as an integral organism, to identify its core, and to determine the realities of the current state. On the basis of this, a whole state is formed (the term was introduced by local historian N.P. Antsiferov).
• identification of “cultural nests”. It is based on a principle put forward in the 1920s. N.K. Piksanov on the relationship between the capital and the province in the history of Russian spiritual culture. In a general article by E.I. Dsrgacheva-Skop and V.N. Alekseev, the concept of “cultural nest” was defined as “a way of describing the interaction of all areas of the cultural life of the province during its heyday...”. Structural parts of the “cultural nest”: landscape and cultural environment, economic, social system, culture. Provincial “nests” influence the capital through “cultural heroes” - outstanding personalities, leaders acting as innovators (urban planner, book publisher, innovator in medicine or pedagogy, philanthropist or philanthropist);
• topographic anatomy - study through names, which are carriers of information about the life of the city;
• anthropogeography - the study of the prehistory of the place where the object is located; analysis of the logical line: place - city - community 3.

Methods used in historical and psychological research.

Method of psychological analysis or the comparative psychological method is a comparative approach from identifying the reasons that prompted an individual to take certain actions, to the psychology of entire social groups and masses as a whole. To understand the individual motives of a particular personality position, traditional characteristics are not enough. It is required to identify the specifics of thinking and the moral and psychological appearance of a person, which determines

that determined the perception of reality and determined the views and activities of the individual. The study touches on the psychology of all aspects of the historical process; general group characteristics and individual characteristics are compared.

Method of socio-psychological interpretation - involves a description of psychological characteristics in order to identify the socio-psychological conditionality of people’s behavior.

Method of psychological construction (experience) - interpretation of historical texts by recreating the inner world of their author, penetrating into the historical atmosphere in which they were located.

For example, Senyavskaya E.S. proposed this method for studying the image of the enemy in a “borderline situation” (the term of Heidegger M., Jaspers K.), meaning by it the restoration of certain historical types of behavior, thinking and perception 1.

Researcher M. Hastings, when writing the book “Overlord,” tried to mentally make a jump to that distant time, and even took part in the exercises of the English Navy.

Methods used in archaeological research: magnetic prospecting, radioisotope and thermoluminescent dating, spectroscopy, X-ray structural and X-ray spectral analysis, etc. To reconstruct the appearance of a person from bone remains, knowledge of anatomy is used (Gerasimov’s method). Geertz Kn. “Rich description”: in search of an interpretive theory of culture // Anthology of cultural studies. TL. Interpretations of culture. St. Petersburg, 1997. pp. 171-203. Schmidt S.O. Historical local history: issues of teaching and learning. Tver, 1991; Gamayunov S.A. Local history: problems of methodology // Questions of history. M., 1996. No. 9. P. 158-163.

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND SCIENCE OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND YOUTH POLICY

KHANTY-MANSI AUTONOMOUS DISTRICT - YUGRA

State educational institution

higher professional education

Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug - Ugra

"Surgut State Pedagogical University"

BASIC METHODS OF HISTORICAL RESEARCH

Essay

Completed by: Vorobyova E.V. group B-3071,IVGFS course Checked by: Medvedev V.V.

Surgut

2017

CONTENT

INTRODUCTION

A modern historian faces the difficult task of developing a research methodology, which should be based on knowledge and understanding of the capabilities of existing methods in historical science, as well as a balanced assessment of their usefulness, effectiveness, and reliability.

In Russian philosophy, there are three levels of scientific methods: general, general, and particular. The division is based on the degree of regulation of cognitive processes.

Universal methods include philosophical methods that are used as the basis for all cognitive procedures and allow one to explain all processes and phenomena in nature, society and thinking.

General methods are used at all stages of the cognitive process (empirical and theoretical) and by all sciences. At the same time, they are focused on understanding individual aspects of the phenomenon being studied.

The third group is private methods. These include methods of a specific science - for example, physical or biological experiment, observation, mathematical programming, descriptive and genetic methods in geology, comparative analysis in linguistics, measurement methods in chemistry, physics, etc.

Particular methods are directly related to the subject of science and reflect its specificity. Each science develops its own system of methods, which develops and is supplemented by related disciplines along with the development of science. This is also characteristic of history, where, along with the traditionally established methods of source study and historiographic analysis based on logical operations, methods of statistics, mathematical modeling, mapping, observation, survey, etc. began to be used.

Within the framework of a particular science, the main methods are also identified - basic for this science (in history these are historical-genetic, historical-comparative, historical-typological, historical-systemic, historical-dynamic) and auxiliary methods with the help of which its individual, particular problems are solved .

In the process of scientific research, general, general and particular methods interact and form a single whole - a methodology. The universal method used reveals the most general principles of human thinking. General methods make it possible to accumulate and analyze the necessary material, as well as give the obtained scientific results - knowledge and facts - a logically consistent form. Particular methods are designed to solve specific issues that reveal individual aspects of a cognizable subject.

1. GENERAL SCIENTIFIC METHODS OF KNOWLEDGE

General scientific methods include observation and experiment, analysis and synthesis, induction and deduction, analogy and hypothesis, logical and historical, modeling, etc.

Observation and experiment belong to the general scientific methods of cognition, especially widely used in natural sciences. By observation we mean perception, living contemplation, directed by a specific task without direct interference with the natural course in natural conditions. An essential condition for scientific observation is the promotion of one or another hypothesis, idea, proposal .

An experiment is a study of an object when the researcher actively influences it by creating artificial conditions necessary to identify certain properties, or by changing the course of the process in a given direction.

Human cognitive activity, aimed at revealing the essential properties, relationships and connections of objects, first of all selects from the totality of observed facts those that are involved in his practical activity. A person mentally, as it were, dismembers an object into its constituent aspects, properties, parts. Studying, for example, a tree, a person identifies different parts and sides in it; trunk, roots, branches, leaves, color, shape, size, etc. Understanding a phenomenon by breaking it down into its components is called analysis. In other words, analysis as a method of thinking is the mental decomposition of an object into its constituent parts and sides, which gives a person the opportunity to separate objects or any of their aspects from those random and transitory connections in which they are given to him in perception. Without analysis, no knowledge is possible, although analysis does not yet highlight the connections between the parties and properties of phenomena. The latter are established by synthesis. Synthesis is a mental unification of elements dissected by analysis .

A person mentally decomposes an object into its component parts in order to discover these parts themselves, in order to find out what the whole consists of, and then considers it as composed of these parts, but already examined separately.

Only gradually comprehending what happens to objects when performing practical actions with them, did a person begin to mentally analyze and synthesize the thing. Analysis and synthesis are the main methods of thinking, because the processes of connection and separation, creation and destruction form the basis of all processes in the world and practical human activity.

Induction and deduction. As a research method, induction can be defined as the process of deriving a general proposition from the observation of a number of individual facts. On the contrary, deduction is a process of analytical reasoning from the general to the specific. The inductive method of cognition, which requires going from facts to laws, is dictated by the very nature of the cognizable object: in it the general exists in unity with the individual, the particular. Therefore, in order to comprehend the general pattern, it is necessary to study individual things and processes.

Induction is only a moment of movement of thought. It is closely related to deduction: any single object can be comprehended only by being included in the system of concepts already existing in your consciousness .

The objective basis of the historical and logical methods of cognition is the real history of the development of the cognizable object in all its concrete diversity and the main, leading tendency, pattern of this development. Thus, the history of human development represents the dynamics of life of all peoples of our planet. Each of them has its own unique history, its own characteristics, which are expressed in everyday life, morals, psychology, language, culture, etc. World history is an endlessly motley picture of the life of mankind in different eras and countries. Here we have the necessary, the accidental, the essential, the secondary, the unique, the similar, the individual, and the general. . But, despite this endless variety of life paths of different peoples, their history has something in common. All peoples, as a rule, went through the same socio-economic formations. The commonality of human life is manifested in all areas: economic, social, and spiritual. It is this commonality that expresses the objective logic of history. The historical method involves the study of a specific development process, and the logical method is the study of the general patterns of movement of the object of knowledge. The logical method is nothing more than the same historical method, only freed from its historical form and from the accidents that violate it.

The essence of the modeling method is to reproduce the properties of an object on a specially designed analogue of it - a model. A model is a conventional image of an object. Although any modeling coarsens and simplifies the object of knowledge, it serves as an important auxiliary means of research. It makes it possible to study processes characteristic of the original, in the absence of the original itself, which is often necessary due to the inconvenience or impossibility of studying the object itself .

General scientific methods of cognition do not replace specific scientific methods of research; on the contrary, they are refracted in the latter and are in dialectical unity with them. Together with them, they perform a common task - the reflection of the objective world in the human mind. General scientific methods significantly deepen knowledge and make it possible to reveal more general properties and patterns of reality.

2. SPECIAL METHODS OF HISTORICAL RESEARCH

Special historical, or general historical, research methods are one or another combination of general scientific methods aimed at studying the object of historical knowledge, i.e. taking into account the features of this object, expressed in the general theory of historical knowledge .

The following special historical methods have been developed: genetic, comparative, typological, systemic, retrospective, reconstructive, actualization, periodization, synchronous, diachronic, biographical. Methods related to auxiliary historical disciplines are also used - archaeology, genealogy, heraldry, historical geography, historical onomastics, metrology, numismatics, paleography, sphragistics, phaleristics, chronology, etc.

The main general historical methods of scientific research include: historical-genetic, historical-comparative, historical-typological and historical-systemic.

Historical-genetic method is one of the most common in historical research. Its essence lies in the consistent disclosure of the properties, functions and changes of the reality being studied in the process of its historical movement, which makes it possible to come closest to reproducing the real history of the object. This object is reflected in the most concrete form. Cognition proceeds sequentially from the individual to the particular, and then to the general and universal. By its logical nature, the historical-genetic method is analytical-inductive, and by its form of expressing information about the reality under study, it is descriptive .

The specificity of this method is not in the construction of ideal images of an object, but in the generalization of factual historical data towards the reconstruction of a general scientific picture of the social process. Its application allows us to understand not only the sequence of events in time, but also the general dynamics of the social process.

The limitations of this method are the lack of attention to statics, i.e. to fix a certain temporal reality of historical phenomena and processes, the danger of relativism may arise. In addition, he “gravitates towards descriptiveness, factualism and empiricism. Finally, the historical-genetic method, despite its long history and breadth of application, does not have a developed and clear logic and conceptual apparatus. Therefore, its methodology, and therefore the technique, is vague and uncertain, which makes it difficult to compare and bring together the results of individual studies .

Idiographic method was proposed by G. Rickert as the main method of history . G. Rickert reduced the essence of the idiographic method to the description of individual characteristics, unique and exceptional features of historical facts, which are formed by a scientist-historian on the basis of their “attribution to value.” In his opinion, history individualizes events, distinguishing them from the infinite variety of so-called. “historical individual”, which meant both the nation and the state, a separate historical personality .

Based on the idiographic method, it is appliedideographic method - a method of unambiguously recording concepts and their connections using signs, or a descriptive method. The idea of ​​the ideographic method goes back to Lullio and Leibniz .

Historical-genetic method close to the ideographic method, especially when used at the first stage of historical research, when information is extracted from sources, systematized and processed. Then the researcher’s attention is focused on individual historical facts and phenomena, on their description as opposed to identifying developmental features .

Cognitive functionscomparative historical method :

Identification of features in phenomena of different order, their comparison, juxtaposition;

Clarification of the historical sequence of the genetic connection of phenomena, establishment of their generic connections and relationships in the process of development, establishment of differences in phenomena;

Generalization, construction of a typology of social processes and phenomena. Thus, this method is broader and more meaningful than comparisons and analogies. The latter do not act as a special method of historical science. They can be used in history, as in other areas of knowledge, and regardless of the comparative historical method.

In general, the historical-comparative method has broad cognitive capabilities .

Firstly, it allows us to reveal the essence of the phenomena under study in cases where it is not obvious, based on the available facts; to identify the general and repetitive, the necessary and natural, on the one hand, and qualitatively different, on the other. Thus, the gaps are filled and the research is brought to a complete form.

Secondly, the historical-comparative method makes it possible to go beyond the phenomena being studied and, on the basis of analogies, to arrive at broad historical generalizations and parallels.

Thirdly, it allows the use of all other general historical methods and is less descriptive than the historical-genetic method.

The successful application of the historical-comparative method, like any other, requires compliance with a number of methodological requirements. First of all, comparison should be based on specific facts that reflect the essential features of phenomena, and not their formal similarity.

You can compare objects and phenomena, both of the same type and of different types, located at the same and at different stages of development. But in one case the essence will be revealed on the basis of identifying similarities, in the other – differences. Compliance with the specified conditions for historical comparisons essentially means consistent application of the principle of historicism.

Identifying the significance of the features on the basis of which a historical-comparative analysis should be carried out, as well as the typology and stage nature of the phenomena being compared, most often requires special research efforts and the use of other general historical methods, primarily historical-typological and historical-systemic. Combined with these methods, the historical-comparative method is a powerful tool in historical research. But this method, naturally, has a certain range of the most effective action. This is, first of all, the study of socio-historical development in broad spatial and temporal aspects, as well as those less broad phenomena and processes, the essence of which cannot be revealed through direct analysis due to their complexity, inconsistency and incompleteness, as well as gaps in specific historical data .

The historical-comparative method has certain limitations, and the difficulties of its application should also be taken into account. This method is not generally aimed at revealing the reality in question. Through it, one learns, first of all, the fundamental essence of reality in all its diversity, and not its specific specificity. It is difficult to use the historical-comparative method when studying the dynamics of social processes. The formal application of the historical-comparative method is fraught with erroneous conclusions and observations .

Historical-typological method. Both the identification of the general in the spatially singular and the identification of the stage-homogeneous in the continuous-temporal require special cognitive means. Such a tool is the method of historical-typological analysis. Typology as a method of scientific knowledge has as its goal the division (ordering) of a set of objects or phenomena into qualitatively defined types (classes) based on their common essential features. Typologization, being a type of classification in form, is a method of essential analysis .

Identification of the qualitative certainty of the considered set of objects and phenomena is necessary for identifying the types that form this set, and knowledge of the essential-substantive nature of the types is an indispensable condition for determining those basic features that are inherent in these types and which can be the basis for a specific typological analysis, i.e. to reveal the typological structure of the reality under study.

The principles of the typological method can only be effectively applied based on a deductive approach . It consists in the fact that the corresponding types are identified on the basis of a theoretical essential-substantive analysis of the considered set of objects. The result of the analysis should be not only the definition of qualitatively different types, but also the identification of those specific features that characterize their qualitative certainty. This creates the opportunity to assign each individual object to one type or another.

The selection of specific features for typology can be multivariate. This dictates the need to use both a combined deductive-inductive and the inductive approach when typologizing. The essence of the deductive-inductive approach is that the types of objects are determined on the basis of an essential-substantive analysis of the phenomena under consideration, and those essential features that are inherent in them are determined by analyzing empirical data about these objects .

The inductive approach differs in that here both the identification of types and the identification of their most characteristic features are based on the analysis of empirical data. This path has to be followed in cases where the manifestations of the individual in the particular and the particular in general are diverse and unstable.

In cognitive terms, the most effective typification is that it allows not only to identify the corresponding types, but also to establish both the degree to which objects belong to these types and the degree of their similarity to other types. This requires methods of multidimensional typology.

Its use brings the greatest scientific effect when studying homogeneous phenomena and processes, although the scope of the method is not limited to them. In the study of both homogeneous and heterogeneous types, it is equally important that the objects being studied are comparable in terms of the main fact for this typification, in terms of the most characteristic features underlying the historical typology .

Historical-systemic method is based on a systems approach. The objective basis of the systematic approach and method of scientific knowledge is the unity in the socio-historical development of the individual (individual), the special and the general. This unity is real and concrete and appears in socio-historical systems of different levels. .

Individual events have certain features unique to them that are not repeated in other events. But these events form certain types and kinds of human activity and relationships, and, therefore, along with individual ones, they also have common features and thereby create certain aggregates with properties that go beyond the individual, i.e. certain systems.

Individual events are included in social systems and through historical situations. A historical situation is a spatio-temporal set of events that form a qualitatively defined state of activity and relationships, i.e. it is the same social system.

Finally, the historical process in its temporal extent has qualitatively different stages or stages, which include a certain set of events and situations that make up subsystems in the overall dynamic system of social development .

The systemic nature of socio-historical development means that all events, situations and processes of this development are not only causally determined and have a cause-and-effect relationship, but are also functionally connected. Functional connections seem to overlap cause-and-effect relationships, on the one hand, and are complex in nature, on the other. On this basis, it is believed that in scientific knowledge the decisive significance should be not a causal, but a structural-functional explanation .

The systems approach and system methods of analysis, which include structural and functional analyses, are characterized by integrity and complexity. The system being studied is considered not from the perspective of its individual aspects and properties, but as a holistic qualitative certainty with a comprehensive account of both its own main features and its place and role in the hierarchy of systems. However, for the practical implementation of this analysis, it is initially necessary to isolate the system under study from an organically unified hierarchy of systems. This procedure is called systems decomposition. It represents a complex cognitive process, because it is often very difficult to isolate a specific system from the unity of systems .

The isolation of the system should be carried out on the basis of identifying a set of objects (elements) that have qualitative certainty, expressed not simply in certain properties of these elements, but also, first of all, in their inherent relationships, in their characteristic system of interconnections. The isolation of the system under study from the hierarchy of systems must be justified. In this case, methods of historical and typological analysis can be widely used.

From a specific content point of view, the solution to this problem comes down to identifying the system-forming (system) features inherent in the components of the selected system.

After identifying the corresponding system, its analysis as such follows. Central here is structural analysis, i.e. identifying the nature of the relationship between the components of the system and their properties, the result of the structural-system analysis will be knowledge about the system as such. This knowledge is empirical in nature, because it in itself does not reveal the essential nature of the identified structure. Translating the acquired knowledge to the theoretical level requires identifying the functions of a given system in the hierarchy of systems, where it appears as a subsystem. This problem is solved by functional analysis, revealing the interaction of the system under study with higher-level systems .

Only a combination of structural and functional analysis allows us to understand the essential nature of the system in all its depth. System-functional analysis makes it possible to identify which properties of the environment, i.e. systems of a higher level, including the system under study as one of the subsystems, determine the essential and meaningful nature of this system .

The disadvantage of this method is its use only in synchronous analysis, which risks not revealing the development process. Another disadvantage is the danger of excessive abstraction - formalization of the reality being studied.

Retrospective method . A distinctive feature of this method is its focus from the present to the past, from effect to cause. In its content, the retrospective method acts, first of all, as a reconstruction technique that allows one to synthesize and correct knowledge about the general nature of the development of phenomena .

The method of retrospective cognition consists in sequential penetration into the past in order to identify the cause of a given event. In this case, we are talking about the root cause directly related to this event, and not about its distant historical roots. Retro-analysis shows, for example, that the root cause of domestic bureaucracy lies in the Soviet party-state system, although they tried to find it in Nicholas’s Russia, and in Peter’s transformations, and in the administrative red tape of the Muscovite kingdom. If during retrospection the path of knowledge is a movement from the present to the past, then when constructing a historical explanation - from the past to the present in accordance with the principle of diachrony .

A number of special historical methods are associated with the category of historical time.These are methods of actualization, periodization, synchronous and diachronic (or problem-chronological).

The first step in the work of a historian is to compile a chronology. The second step is periodization. The historian cuts history into periods, replacing the elusive continuity of time with some kind of signifying structure. The relationships of discontinuity and continuity are revealed: continuity occurs within periods, discontinuity occurs between periods.

To periodize means, therefore, to identify discontinuities, violations of continuity, to indicate what exactly is changing, to date these changes and to give them a preliminary definition. Periodization deals with the identification of continuity and its disruptions. It opens the way to interpretation. It makes history, if not entirely understandable, then at least already conceivable.

The historian does not reconstruct time in its entirety for each new study: he takes the time on which other historians have already worked, the periodization of which is available. Since the question asked acquires legitimacy only as a result of its inclusion in the research field, the historian cannot abstract from previous periodizations: after all, they constitute the language of the profession.

The diachronic method is characteristic of structural-diachronic research, which is a special type of research activity when the problem of identifying the features of the construction of processes of various natures over time is solved. Its specificity is revealed through comparison with the synchronistic approach. The terms “diachrony” (multi-temporality) and “synchrony” (simultaneity), introduced into linguistics by the Swiss linguist F. de Saussure, characterize the sequence of development of historical phenomena in a certain area of ​​reality (diachrony) and the state of these phenomena at a certain point in time (synchrony) .

Diachronic (multi-temporal) analysis is aimed at studying the essential-temporal changes in historical reality. With its help, you can answer questions about when this or that state may occur during the process being studied, how long it will persist, how long it will take this or that historical event, phenomenon, process .

CONCLUSION

Methods of scientific knowledge are a set of techniques, norms, rules and procedures that regulate scientific research and ensure the solution of a research problem. The scientific method is a way of searching for answers to scientifically posed questions and at the same time a way of posing such questions, formulated in the form of scientific problems. Thus, the scientific method is a way of obtaining new information to solve scientific problems.

History as a subject and science is based on historical methodology. If in many other scientific disciplines there are two main methods of knowledge, namely observation and experiment, then for history only the first method is available. Even though every true scientist tries to minimize the impact on the object of observation, he still interprets what he sees in his own way. Depending on the methodological approaches used by scientists, the world receives different interpretations of the same event, various teachings, schools, and so on.

The use of scientific methods of cognition distinguishes historical science in such areas as historical memory, historical consciousness and historical knowledge, of course, provided that the use of these methods is correct.

LIST OF SOURCES USED

Barg M.A. Categories and methods of historical science. - M., 1984

Bocharov A.V. Basic methods of historical research: Textbook. - Tomsk: Tomsk State University, 2006. 190 p.

Grushin B.A. Essays on the logic of historical research.-M., 1961

Ivanov V.V. Methodology of historical science. - M., 1985

Bocharov A.V. Basic methods of historical research: Textbook. - Tomsk: Tomsk State University, 2006. 190 p.

When, in ancient times, a Hellenic writer named Herodotus began to compose his famous book about the bloody Greek wars, in which he described the customs and traditions of the countries surrounding him and their inhabitants, even in his wildest dreams he could not imagine that his descendants would give him his father’s famous name great and incredibly interesting science - history. As one of the most ancient and famous disciplines, it has its own subject, methods, and sources for studying history.

What discipline is called history?

What is history? This is a fascinating science that studies the past of both an individual and the entire human society. By examining the various sources available to it, this discipline tries to establish the real sequence of certain events that occurred in the distant or near past, as well as to comprehensively study the causes of their occurrence and consequences.
Having emerged, like many other sciences, in Ancient Greece, history initially studied the lives of prominent individuals, as well as crowned families, rulers and wars. However, over time, the subject and method of studying history have changed and expanded. More precisely, over the years, history began to study the past not only of individual people who distinguished themselves in some way, but also of entire nations, various sciences, buildings, religions and much more.

Basic methods of studying history as a science

The method of historical research is a way of studying historical processes through a diverse analysis of facts, as well as acquiring new information based on these same facts.
There are two huge categories into which methods of studying history are divided. These are specific methods as well as general methods for most of the humanities.

Specific methods for studying history

1. General scientific methods.
2. Private scientific methods.
3. Methods borrowed from other sciences.

General scientific methods are of the following types:

• Theoretical, which include the famous deduction, induction, synthesis and analysis, the construction of hypotheses, modeling, generalization, inversion, abstraction, analogy and the system-structural approach.
• Practical methods for studying history: experiment, observation, measurement, comparison, description. Often this type of method is also called empirical.

Private scientific historical methods of studying history:

• Chronological method - historical data is presented in their chronological sequence, from past to present.
• The retrospective method is the study of historical facts by gradually penetrating into the past in order to discover the reasons for the event that happened.
• The concrete historical method is the recording of all events and facts.
• Comparative-historical - an event is studied in the context of similar incidents that took place earlier or later. This research method makes it possible to study a particular event in more depth from different angles.
• Historical-genetic - the study of the emergence and development of a certain event.
• Historical-typological - classification of events or objects according to their type or characteristic.

In addition to the above, quite often scientists use other methods to study history, borrowed from other related and not so related sciences, for example from statistics, psychology, sociology, anthropology, archeology and others.

General methods of research and study of history

For most humanities disciplines and history in particular, the general methods are:

1. Logical method - examines the phenomena under study at the peak of their development, since during this period their form becomes most mature, and this gives the keys to understanding the previous stages of historical development.
2. Historical method - with its help, processes and certain historical phenomena are reproduced in chronological development, taking into account unique features, patterns and details. By observing them, you can track certain patterns.

Historical sources

When researching history, scientists have to work with objects or phenomena that they most often cannot see with their own eyes, since they took place many years, centuries or even millennia ago.
Between the research of historians and the fact that actually happened in the past, there is an intermediate link - this is a historical source. The science of source studies deals with research and classification of sources for the study of history.

Types of historical sources

There are different types of classifications of historical sources. The most popular is the classification by type. According to it, 7 groups of sources are distinguished:

1. Oral (folk tales, songs, rituals).
2. Written (chronicles, books, diaries, newspapers, magazines and others).
3. Material (remains of weapons on the battlefield, ancient burials, preserved items of clothing, household items, and so on).
4. Ethnographic (materials related to the culture of a particular ethnic group, most often provided by ethnography).
5. Linguistic (names of cities, rivers, areas, food products, concepts, etc.).
6. Phonodocuments.
7. Photo and film documents.

The last two types of sources of historical research have become available to historians relatively recently, but thanks to them, conducting research has become much easier. Although, thanks to the achievements of modern technology, it has become very easy to falsify photographs, videos and audio recordings, so it will be difficult for historians of the near future to use these historical sources.

The science of history, like the history of mankind itself, interacts with a whole range of other disciplines, often using them as sources of information, as well as using their methods, principles and achievements. In turn, history also helps other disciplines. Therefore, there are a number of historical sciences that concentrate their attention on the subject of a particular discipline. Such, for example, as the history of philosophy, politics, culture, literature, music and many others. In this regard, correctly chosen methods and sources for studying history are very important, because it is on their choice and use that the establishment of facts of objective reality depends, which affects not only the “brainchild of Herodotus”, but also all other sciences related to it.

Lecture No. 1. Subject and methods of the science of history.

Subject of historical science.

Methods of history.

1. History (from the Greek Historia - a story about the past, about what has been learned), is considered in 2 meanings:

as a process of development of nature and humanity;

as a system of sciences that study the past of nature and society.

The most important task of history is to generalize and process the accumulated human experience. Historia est magistra vitae, said the ancients. And, indeed, people are always trying to find answers to many questions. Using historical examples, they are brought up in respect for eternal human values: peace, goodness, beauty, justice, freedom.

History is viewed as a single process of evolution of nature and society.

“Respect for the past is the feature that distinguishes education from savagery,” said A.S. Pushkin.

The great Russian historian V.O. Klyuchevsky wrote: “Without knowledge of history, we must recognize ourselves as accidents, not knowing how and why we came into the world, how and why we live in it, how and what we should strive for, mechanical dolls who are not born, but are made, do not die according to the laws of nature, life, but are broken according to someone’s childish whim” (Klyuchevsky V.O. Letters. Diaries, Aphorisms and Thoughts on History. - M., 1968, p. 332.) .

Ideas about the world in ancient times and now differ significantly: the world has changed, and people have changed. History is a developing body of social experience, passed on from generation to generation, which is interpreted anew each time.

Interest in the past has existed since the human race appeared. Man himself is a historical being. It changes, develops over time, is a product of this development.

The original meaning of the word “history” goes back to the ancient Greek term meaning “investigation”, “recognition”, “establishment”. History was identified with establishing the authenticity and truth of events and facts.

In Roman historiography (historiography is a branch of historical science that studies its history), this word began to mean a story about the events of the past. Soon, “history began to be called in general any story about any incident, real or fictitious

Currently, we use the word “history” in 2 senses:

1) to denote a story about the past;

2) when we are talking about a unified science that studies the past.

Subject of history is defined ambiguously. Its subject can be social, political, economic history, the history of the city, village, family, and private life. The definition of the subject of history is subjective, connected with the ideology of the state and the worldview of the historian. Historians who take a materialist position believe that history as a science studies the patterns of development of society, which depend on the method of production of material goods. This approach prioritizes economics over people in explaining causation. Historians who adhere to liberal views are convinced that the subject of the study of history is man (personality). The famous French historian Marc Bloch defines history “as the science of people in time.” Historians use scientific categories in their research: historical movement (historical time, space), historical fact, theory of the historical process (methodological interpretation).

Historical movement includes interrelated scientific categories: historical time and historical space. Historical time moves only forward. History does not exist outside the concept of historical time. Events following one after another form a time series. There are internal connections between events in time and space.

Concept historical time changed several times. This was reflected in the periodization of the historical process.

Almost until the end of the 18th century, historians distinguished between the eras of savagery, barbarism and civilization. Later, two approaches to the periodization of history took shape: formational (materialist historians of the 19th century) and civilizational (historical-liberal periodization of the early 21st century).

Under historical space understand the totality of natural-geographical, economic, political, socio-cultural processes occurring in a certain territory.

Historical fact- these are real events of the past, what is considered a generally accepted truth (Egyptian pyramids, the Macedonian wars, the Baptism of Rus', etc.), we receive specific historical data from historical sources.

Under historical sources understands all the remnants of the past, in which historical evidence has been deposited, reflecting real human activity. All sources can be divided into groups: written, material, ethnographic, folklore, linguistic, film documents (phonic), architectural monuments, household items of the past, written documents, paintings, engravings, diagrams, drawings, sound recordings and much more.

Methods of learning history.

The historical method is a path, a method of action through which a researcher acquires new historical knowledge. Basic historical methods:

Historical and genetic;

Historical-comparative;

Historical and typological;

Historical-systemic.

General scientific methods are also applicable in history: analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction, description, measurement, explanation, etc.

The essence of the historical-genetic method comes down to the consistent disclosure of the properties and functions of the object being studied in the process of its change. Knowledge goes from the individual to the particular and further to the general and universal.

Historical-comparative method consists of comparing events that occurred at different times, but were similar in many ways. By comparing them, scientists can explain the content of the facts and phenomena under consideration. The method makes it possible to reveal the essence of the events being studied by their similarities and differences, and to compare them in time and space.

Historical-typological method(typologization). Studying the history of World War II, one can raise the question of the balance of forces between the Hitler and anti-Hitler coalitions. The warring parties can be conditionally divided into two groups. The sides of each group will differ only in relation to the allies and enemies of Germany (they may differ in other respects - in the anti-Hitler coalition there will be socialist countries and capitalist ones.

Historical-systemic method helps to study the unity of events and phenomena in socio-historical development. For example, the history of Russia is considered not as an independent process, but as a result of interaction with other states, an element of the development of the history of the entire civilization.

The common methods for all humanities are historical and logical.

Historical method– this is an examination of the process in complex development: how it arose, what it was like at the beginning, what path it has taken.

With the logical method The phenomena being studied are considered from the point of view of evidence and refutation.

In historical science, in addition, the following methods are used:

Chronological method – presentation of phenomena in a strictly sequential, temporal order.

Chronologically problematic- the study of history by periods, themes or eras, internally - by problems.

Problem-chronological– one aspect of a person’s or society’s activity is studied in its consistent development.

Synchronistic - establishes relationships between processes and phenomena occurring at the same time in different regions.

There are also comparative historical, retrospective, system-structural, statistical methods, mathematical analysis and sociological research.

Functions of historical science:

Cognitive - to understand the essence of the historical process, its patterns, in order to avoid the mistakes of the past;

Evaluative – to internalize universal human values, to understand the fallacy of a one-dimensional approach to the analysis of historical phenomena;

Practical – application of the most effective ways to solve social problems known in the history of various countries.

Each method is formed on a certain methodological basis, i.e. any method is based on a certain methodological principle (one or a set).

Methodology – the basic principles on which the historian proceeds (is based). That is why there is such a great variety of interpretations of the same eras and events (for example, the degree of significance of the role of the USSR and Western countries in the victory in World War II).

Methodology of historical research - means, methods, techniques with the help of which the historian obtains historical information and builds his narrative.

Specific historical methods most common. Why does a historian need to know them?

1. In order to research results were richer, the study is more complete.

2. Clearer become flaws reliance on sources and others methods of historical research.

Methods of historical research:

1. Method of relying on sources (source analysis method).

2. Descriptive method.

3. Biographical method.

4. Comparative-historical method.

5. Retrospective method.

6. Terminological method.

7. Statistical method.

Method of relying on sources (method of source analysis).

Methodological principle of the source analysis method– the historian must conduct external and internal criticism of the source to establish the authenticity, completeness, reliability and novelty, significance of both the source itself and the information it contains.

The advantage of this method of historical research: comes from information, messages from contemporaries, documentary sources (they are more or less objective).

The disadvantage of this method of historical research: information from one source is not enough; it is necessary to compare one source with other sources, data, etc.

Descriptive method

Descriptive method historical research (one of the oldest) is based on the methodological principle according to which history should study the peculiar, individual, non-repetitive (historical events do not repeat) in the past.

Based on the originality, uniqueness, singularity of historical events, descriptive method boils down to this:

1. Method of presentation wears not “formalized” (i.e. in the form of diagrams, formulas, tables, etc.), but literary, narrative character.

2. Because dynamics(movement, path) development of events is individual, then it can be expressed only by describing it.

3. Because any event is connected with others, then to determine these connections you must first describe them (connections).

4. Definition of the subject (image) is possible only with the help of description (if you rely on terms (for example, civilization), then you first need to agree on what it is (subject, object), i.e. describe).

conclusions.

1. Description– a necessary step in historical research.

2. Description is only the first step, because event essence is expressed not in individual, but in general outline(signs); common features can be expressed in narrative logic, generalizations, conclusions(for example, when describing a person (let’s say Turgenev’s Bazarov), we can only describe a specific person, but not a person as a phenomenon, a concept).

3. Generalization without description is schematization, description without generalization is factualization, which means these descriptions and conclusions, generalizations are closely related, But with this method (descriptive), description prevails over generalization.

Biographical method

Biographical method historical research is one of the oldest.

Used in Antiquity ("Comparative Lives" Plutarch), was widely used in the 19th century. in political history.

INXIXV., V political historiography There were both supporters and opponents of the biographical method.

Supporters of the biographical method (Thomas Carlyle, Pyotr Lavrov etc.) proceeded from the methodological position, according to which the biographical method is the most sensible (the subject of the historical process is heroes, outstanding, unique personalities; their (heroes, outstanding personalities) biography, motives, actions, behavior were studied).

Critics of the biographical method: subject of history – masses(German historian Highway) and their needs (from this position Chausser studied uprisings and rebellions).

Compromise position: English historian Lewis Nahmir (Nahmir) considered mid-level politicians(medium-level deputies of the English parliament, ordinary deputies): what influenced the results of their voting, analyzed their life path, biography, social status, personal connections (career, household); L. Namir believed that he was able in this way to determine not imaginary, abstract (generalized) class motives, but true, specific motives of behavior of the social stratum, expressed in the figure of an ordinary (average) deputy; at Namira the political struggle in the English parliament looked only like a struggle for personal power, career growth and well-being, parliamentary seats, so these are the true motives of behavior and social strata that the above deputies represent? Namir does not take into account the means of production and social interests in its concept.

In what cases and to what extent is the biographical method applicable?

1. The biographical method can be used with taking into account the nature of historical conditions, the needs of the masses(since a historical figure expresses the needs of the masses, he plays a very important role).

2. The combination of the role of the masses and the individual is such that the leading role belongs to the masses, personality can only speed up or slow down, but not give birth historical conditions.

T. Carlyle exaggerated the role of the individual, many Soviet historians– the role of the masses. Namir did not connect the motives of people's behavior with specific historical conditions (i.e. the motives for the behavior of a medieval lord and a townsman are not identical to the motives for the behavior of a lord and a townsman in the English parliament of the 19th century), which is determined production method (primitive communal, slaveholding, feudal, capitalist, communist) material goods.

Comparative historical method

Comparative historical method is now very widely used (especially in domestic historiography).

The comparative historical method was also used in Age of Enlightenment , but very peculiar:

1. Compare different types of society, state, therefore, they came to false conclusions (for example, about the superiority of European civilization over the American Indians using the example of the Spanish monarchy and the Aztec state).

2. The basis for comparing different types of societies and states was the belief in the truth of the methodological principle, according to which human nature is unchanged in all eras, times (for example, by the English historian Lewis Namir), history was perceived as general patterns, motives for the behavior of human society.

Conclusion. Thus, the methodological basis of the comparative historical method in the Age of Enlightenment was the incorrect definition of the general, the natural in the form of the same human nature as the basis of motivation. One cannot examine the common on the basis of the immutability of human nature (for example, the empire of Charlemagne and the Qing Empire).

IN XIX V. (especially towards the end of the century) the comparative historical method began to be used both for identifying common(general patterns - for example, HELL. Toynbee (tried to find common features among civilizations of different times, etc.)), and for identifying originality(for example, at Gerhardt Elton , German historian at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries), i.e. Some historians absolutized the general, other historians - the originality (skewed in one direction).

The possibility and necessity of using the comparative historical method is associated with the recognition of the truth of the following methodological principle(if derived from the following methodological principle): there is a close connection between the general and the individual (i.e. in events that are repeated and non-repetitive (peculiar) in the understanding of history).

The condition for the correct application of the comparative historical method is comparison of “one-order” events, which suggests preliminary use of the descriptive method:

I – analogy , “parallel”, i.e. transfer of ideas from an object of one era to a similar object of another era, but comparison of “single-order” events, phenomena, etc. involves the use of the next stage of the comparative historical method (at stage I the descriptive nature predominates);

IIstage of the comparative historical method– identification of an essential nature (for example, war, revolution) events, the basis is "repetition" in time and space(the essence is repeated both in the same era and in different eras and space).

If the comparison is incorrect at stage I (the descriptive nature predominates), the historian may come with incorrect elements of “repetition” at stage II. For example, commodity production at the second stage of the comparative historical method was equated to capitalist production (for example, Eduard Meyer (1855 – 1930), German historian who saw capitalism in ancient Greece and in the modern world; according to one criterion, one phenomenon is equated to another).

IIIstage of the comparative historical method– essentially horizontal “repetition” –

typology technique , i.e. must be compared Not only separate(albeit important) events, but also system of events in a given era, i.e. types are distinguished.

Types of feudal society:

1) Romanesque (Italy, Spain) beginning;

2) Germanic (England, Scandinavian countries) beginning;

3) a mixture of Romanesque and Germanic principles (the Frankish kingdom from the Merovingians to the Capetians).

Gradually, the general comes to the fore, the originality is gradually erased. Typology is an attempt to establish a balance between generality and originality.

Sampling method

A more complex type of quantitative analysis is sample statistics , which is a method of probabilistic conclusion about the unknown based on the known. This method is used in cases where there is no complete information about the entire statistical population and the researcher is forced to create a picture of the phenomena being studied on the basis of incomplete, partial data, or when the information is complete, but it is difficult to cover or its study in its entirety does not provide noticeable advantages in comparison with sampling.

Example. Based on a small part of the surviving household inventories, generalized indicators were calculated for the beginning of the 19th century, and 1861, in particular, which made it possible to judge the presence of livestock in the peasant household (namely, serfs), the ratio of various strata and etc.

Sampling method It is also used with complete information, the processing of which in its entirety does not provide any significant advantage in obtaining results.

How are calculations made according to sampling method? Calculated an arithmetic mean applied to the entire set of phenomena. Generalizations obtained through a sampling approach become valid only if they are sufficiently representative, i.e. adequately reflecting the properties of the studied set of phenomena.

Selective statistical analysis in most cases leads to detecting development trends.

Example. Comparison of selected quantitative data on the provision of peasant farms with workers and other livestock at the beginning of the 19th century. in comparison with the post-reform period, it helped to identify a tendency towards a deterioration in the situation of the peasant economy, to show the nature and degree of social stratification in its environment, etc.

The results of a quantitative assessment of the ratio of the studied characteristics are not absolute results at all and cannot be transferred to situations with other conditions.

Retrospective method

Historical knowledge is retrospective, i.e. it is addressed to how events developed in reality - from cause to effect. The historian must go from effect to cause (one of the rules of historical knowledge).

The essence of the retrospective method is relying on a higher stage of development in order to understand and evaluate the previous one. This may be due to the fact that there may be a lack of factual data, sources, or because:

1) to understand the essence the event or process being studied thinking needs to be followed his development from end to end;

2) everyone previous stage Can understand not only thanks to him connections with other stages, but also in the light subsequent and a higher stage of development in general, in which the essence of the whole process is most fully expressed; this also helps to understand the previous stages.

Example. French Revolution endXVIIIV. developed in an ascending line, if we bear in mind the degree of radicalization of demands, slogans and programs, as well as the social essence of the strata of society that came to power. The last, Jacobin stage expresses this dynamics to the greatest extent and makes it possible to judge both the revolution as a whole and the nature and significance of its previous stages.

The essence of the retrospective method was expressed in particular Karl Marx . On the method of studying the medieval community by a German historian Georg Ludwig Maurer (1790 – 1872) K. Marx wrote: “...the stamp of this “agricultural community is so clearly expressed in the new community that Maurer, having studied the latter, could restore the first.”

Lewis Henry Morgan (1818 – 1881), American historian and ethnographer, in his work “Ancient Society” showed the evolution of family and marriage relations from group forms to individual ones; recreated the history of the family in reverse order down to the primitive state of the dominance of polygamy. Along with recreating the appearance of the primitive family formL.G. Morgan proved the fundamental similarity in the development of family and marital relations among the ancient Greeks and Romans and the American Indians. L.G. Morgan What helped him understand this similarity was the idea of ​​the unity of world history, which also manifests itself asynchronously, and not only within the time horizon. Your idea of ​​unity expressed as follows: “Their” (the forms of family and marital relations in Ancient Greece and Rome with the relations of the American Indians) “comparison and comparison indicates the uniformity of the activity of the human mind under the same social system.” Opening L.G. Morgana

reveals the interaction of retrospective and comparative historical methods in the mechanism of his thinking. In domestic historiography, the retrospective method was used (1923 – 1995) when studying agrarian relations in Russia in the 19th century. The essence of the method was an attempt to consider the peasant economy at different system levels: individual peasant farms (yards), a higher level - peasant communities (villages), even higher levels - volosts, counties, provinces.

I.D. Kovalchenko considered the following:

1) the system of provinces represents the highest level, it was at this level that the main features of the socio-economic system of the peasant economy were most clearly manifested; their knowledge is necessary to reveal the essence of structures located at a lower level;

2) the nature of the structure at the lower (household) level, being correlated with its essence at the highest level, shows to what extent the general trends in the functioning of the peasant economy were manifested in the individual.

Retrospective method applicable not only to the study of individual phenomena, but also entire historical eras. This essence of the method is most clearly expressed in K. Marx, who wrote the following: “ Bourgeois society- is the most developed and most versatile historical organization of production. That's why categories, expressing his relationships, understanding of his organization, give at the same time possibility of penetration into organization and industrial relations of all obsolete social forms, from the fragments and elements of which it is built, partly developing to full meaning what was previously only in the form of a hint, etc. Human anatomy is the key to ape anatomy. On the contrary, hints of something higher in lower species of animals can only be understood if this itself is later already known.”

In a concrete historical study retrospective method very closely related to "method of remnants" , by which historians understand a method of reconstructing objects that have passed into the past based on the remains that have survived and reached the modern historian of the era.

"Method of Remnants" used E. Taylor, German historian A. Meitzen, K. Lamprecht, M. Blok and etc.

Edward (Edward) Burnett Taylor (1832 - 1917), an English researcher of primitive society, ethnographer, understood the term “survivals” as follows: “... there is a wide class of facts for which I would consider it convenient to introduce the term “survival.” These are those customs, rituals, views, etc., which, being by force of habit transferred from one stage of the culture to which they were characteristic, to another, later one, remain a living testimony or monument of the past.” E. Taylor wrote about the significance of the study of survivals: “Their study invariably confirms that a European can find among the Greenlanders and Maoris many features to reconstruct a picture of the life of his own ancestors.”

Relics in the broad sense of the word include monuments and information of a relict nature. If we are talking about written sources dating back to a certain era, then data or fragments included from more ancient documents may be relicts (for example, among the titles of Salic truth (IX century) of archaic content is title 45 “On migrants”) .

Many German historians of the 19th century, engaged in agrarian-historical research and actively using the “survival method”, believed that historical development is evolutionary in nature, the past is reproduced in the present and is its simple continuation, deep qualitative changes in the communal system throughout its existence absent; remnants– these are not relics of the past in conditions of a qualitatively different reality, but generally similar phenomena to it (reality).

This led, for example, to the following. Over-generalization of data obtained by a German historian A. Meitsen by using "method of remnants“, expressed in the fact that without proper critical verification he illuminated the agricultural practices of one region on the basis of boundary maps of another region and transferred the evidence of German boundary maps to the agricultural system of France, England and other countries.

German historian Karl Lamprecht (1856 - 1915) when studying household communities that took place in the first half of the 19th century. in the area of ​​the city of Trier, discovered in them features that were not a direct relic of the ancient free community.

French historian Mark Block (1886 – 1944) and representatives of his school successfully applied the “survival method” to the analysis of French survey maps of the 18th century.

Main methodological requirement, presented to the “method of vestiges” –

the need to determine and prove the relict nature of the evidence on the basis of which the historian wants to scientifically reconstruct a picture of a long-vanished historical reality. At the same time, genuine historicism must be observed in assessing the phenomena of the past. A differentiated approach to relics of the past that are different in nature is also necessary.

Terminological method

The overwhelming majority of information about the past is expressed for the historian in verbal form. This raises a number of problems, the main one of which is linguistic: does the meaning of the word have reality or is it a fiction?? The latter view was shared by the famous Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure (1857 – 1913).

Methodological basis studying the role of terminological analysis in the historian’s research is the thesis according to which The terminological apparatus of the sources borrows its subject content from life, from reality, although the relationship between thought and the content of the word is not entirely adequate.

Taking into account the historical, i.e. changing, content of terms, words of sources – one of the necessary conditions for scientific historicism in understanding and assessing social phenomena.

IN XIX V . scientists have come to the conclusion that language becomes one of the sources of knowledge of social phenomena from the moment when it begins to be treated historically, i.e. when it is seen as one of the results of historical development. Taking advantage of the achievements of classical philology and comparative linguistics, German historians B.G. Niebuhr , T. Mommsen and others widely used terminological analysis as one of the means of cognition social phenomena Antiquity.

Terminological analysis is of particular importance when using various categories of ancient and medieval sources. This is explained by the fact that the content and meaning of many terms related to the modern era of the researcher are not as clear as the contemporary language or the language of the recent past. Meanwhile, the solution to many fundamental concrete historical problems often depends on one or another interpretation of the content of terms.

The difficulty of studying many categories of historical sources also lies in the fact that the terms used in them are ambiguous or, on the contrary, different terms are used to denote the same phenomena.

Famous researcher of the peasantry of Ancient Rus', academician Boris Dmitrievich Grekov (1882 – 1953) attached great importance to the analysis of terms from historical sources. He wrote about the need to find out “... what terms the writing left to us as a legacy denoted the farmer... what terms used to designate the sources of the various layers of the mass of the people who fed the country with their labor.” According to Grekov, The researcher’s conclusions also depend on one or another understanding of the terms.

An example of the relationship between language data analysis and historical analysis is the work Friedrich Engels "Frankish dialect". This work is an independent scientific, historical and linguistic study. Studying Engels Frankish dialect is accompanied by generalizations on the history of the Franks. At the same time, he widely uses the retrospective method of studying the Salic dialect in contemporary languages ​​and dialects.

F. Engels uses a language for solving a number of problems in the history of the ancient Germans. By analyzing the High German movement of consonants and establishing the boundaries of dialects, he draws conclusions about the nature of the migrations of the tribes, the degree of their mixing with each other and the territory they occupied initially and as a result of conquests and migrations.

The development of the content of terms and concepts recorded in historical sources, in general, lags behind the development of the real content of historical events hidden behind them. In this sense, many historical terms are characterized by archaism, which often borders on the complete death of their content. Such a lag is a problem for the researcher that requires a mandatory solution, because otherwise, historical reality cannot be adequately reflected.

Depending on the nature of the historical source, terminological analysis can have different meanings for solving historical problems themselves. Clarification of the property status of various categories of holders hidden under the terms villani, borbarii, cotarii, found in book of the Last Judgment(end of the 11th century), is of paramount importance for the study of the history of feudalism in England.

Terminological analysis is a productive means of cognition in cases where sources are written in the native language of a given people, for example Russian truth or Scandinavian and Anglo-Saxon truths.

Special a type of terminological analysis as one of the sources of historical knowledge is toponymic analysis . Toponymy, needing historical data, as well as data from other branches of knowledge, itself is kind a primary source for the historian. Geographical names are always historically determined, so they somehow bear the imprint of their time. Geographical names reflect the features of the material and spiritual life of the people in a particular era, the pace of historical development, and the influence of natural and geographical conditions on social life. For a historian, the source of knowledge is not only the content of a word, but also its linguistic form. These are formal elements in toponymic material that cannot serve as a reliable source without linguistic analysis; the latter, however, must have a truly historical basis, i.e. It is necessary to study both the bearer of the names and those who gave these names. Geographical names reflect the process of settlement of territories; individual names indicate the occupation of the population in the past. Toponymic data are of great importance for history of unliterate peoples; they to a certain extent replace chronicles. Toponymic analysis gives material for drawing up geographical maps.

A certain source of knowledge of the past is names of people, anthroponymic analysis (used relatively rarely in modern historiography) The processes of name-education and name-creativity were closely related to the real lives of people, including economic relations.

Example. The surnames of representatives of the feudal nobility of medieval France emphasized the ownership of their bearer to the land. The need to register subjects in order to receive feudal rent from them was one of the important reasons for the introduction of the surname. Often first and last names were unique social signs, the decoding of which allows us to judge social status of their bearers, as well as pose and resolve other specific historical questions.

Without a preliminary study of the content of the term, it is impossible to achieve an understanding of any phenomenon. The problem - language and history - is an important scientific problem for both linguists and historians.

The fruitfulness of using terminological analysis(method) depends, first of all, on compliance with the following conditions:

1. Necessary consider polysemy of the term , used to designate various events or phenomena that differ from each other; Associated with this is the need to consider a set of terms relating to the same events, and to clarify this ambiguity, the widest possible range of sources in which it occurs is involved.

2. To the analysis of each term should approach historically , i.e. take into account the development of its content depending on conditions, time, place, etc.

3. C the emergence of new terminology it is necessary to find out whether there is a new content hidden behind it or something that already existed before, but under a different name.

Statistical method (methods of mathematical statistics)

In historical science, quantitative and mathematical methods are increasingly being used. What caused this, what is the essence and purpose of these methods, what is their relationship with the methods of essential-substantive, qualitative analysis in the work of a historian?

Historical reality is the unity of content and form, essence and phenomenon, quality and quantity. Quantitative and qualitative characteristics are in unity, characterized by the transition from one to the other. The ratio of quantity and quality is expressed by a measure that reveals the mentioned unity. The concept of "measure" was first used Hegel. There is a wide variety of quantitative methods - from the simplest calculations and calculations to modern mathematical methods using computers.

The application of mathematical analysis varies depending on the measure of the relationship between quantity and quality. For example, to conquer China, Genghis Khan required, among other things, military leadership abilities ( quality) and a 50,000-strong army ( quantity). The properties and nature of phenomena determine the extent and features of the application of their quantitative analysis, and in order to understand this, a qualitative analysis is necessary.

Ivan Dmitrievich Kovalchenko (1923 - 1995) - a historian who was early proficient in the methods of substantive and quantitative analysis, wrote: “... the widest use of mathematical methods in any branch of knowledge does not in itself create any new science (in this case, “mathematical history” ") and does not replace other research methods, as is sometimes mistakenly thought. Mathematical methods allow the researcher to obtain certain characteristics of the characteristics being studied, but by themselves they do not explain anything. The nature and inner essence of phenomena in any field can be revealed only by methods inherent in a particular science.”

Although measurement, to one degree or another, can be used to characterize any qualitative characteristics, including individual, phenomena, but there are objects in the study of which qualitative analysis is insufficient and cannot do without quantitative methods. This is the area massive phenomena reflected in mass sources.

Example. For example, land donations in Western Europe in the Middle Ages in favor of the church were expressed in the design of charters (cartularies). Cartularies number in the tens of thousands, in particular the cartulary of the Lorsch Monastery. To study the movement of land property from hand to hand, qualitative analysis is insufficient; labor-intensive operations of a quantitative nature and properties are required.

The use of quantitative analysis methods is dictated by the nature of the object of historical science and the needs for the development of its study. Historical research opens up the possibility of using mathematical methods when it is “ripe” for this, i.e. when the necessary work has been carried out on a qualitative analysis of the event or phenomenon being studied in ways inherent in historical science.

The original form of quantitative analysis in historical research was statistical method. Its development and application are associated with the emergence of statistics as a social discipline that studies the quantitative side of mass social phenomena and processes - economic, political, cultural, demographic, etc. Statistics(originally “political arithmetic”) originated in England in the second halfXVIIV. The term "statistics" came into use inXVIIIV. (from lat.status- state). The statistical method has been widely used in middle - second halfXIXV. This method was used by: English historian Henry Thomas Buckle (1821 – 1862), German historians K.T. Inama-Sternegg (1843 – 1908), Karl Lamprecht (1856 – 1915), Russian and Soviet historians IN. Klyuchevsky, ON THE. Rozhkov, N.M. Druzhinin, M.A. Barg, I.D. Kovalchenko and etc.

The statistical method can be an effective means of historical knowledge only under certain conditions of its application. In the works IN AND. Lenin the requirement of social typology is clearly formulated as one of the conditions for applying the statistical method: “... statistics should give not arbitrary columns of numbers, but digital illumination of those various social types of the phenomenon being studied, which have been fully outlined and are being outlined by life.”

To the number general conditions for the rational application of the statistical method relate:

1. A priority , primacy qualitative analysis in relation to to quantitative analysis .

2. Study qualitative and quantitative characteristics in their unity.

3. Identification qualitative homogeneity of events subject to statistical processing.

The availability of massive material from medieval sources does not always open up the possibility of using a statistical method. In connection with the study of the history of the free and dependent peasantry in Germany in the 8th – 12th centuries. Alexander Iosifovich Neusykhin (1898 – 1969) wrote: “ The nature of the sources at our disposal, in particular, for the first two regions (Alemannia and Tyrol), – does not allow the use of a statistical method surveys, because the cartularies we studied do not make it possible to make quantitative calculations of different strata of the peasantry or different forms of feudal rent.” In such cases, a qualitative analysis of the content of sources, associated with an individual approach to them, becomes an educational tool that fills the indicated gap in the application of the statistical method.

One type of statistical analysis is descriptive statistics . Its similarity with the descriptive method is that the description procedure is applied to quantitative data, the totality of which constitutes a statistical fact. For example, in In pre-revolutionary Russia, 85% of the population was peasantry.

Correlation method

There is also correlation method , in which a relationship (correlation coefficient) of two quantities is established with a much greater degree of probability and reliability than a qualitative analysis can provide (see below).

Example. The historian sets the task of finding out the dependence of the size of corvee duties and their dynamics on the state of peasant farms and its changes. In this case, the historian uses the calculation of the relationship between the level of corvee and the provision of peasant farms with draft animals, between corvee and the number of able-bodied men, and then the total dependence of duties on the number of draft animals and the amount of labor.

The correlation method is of little use for determining the comparative role of various causes (factors) in a particular process.

Regression method

There is also a regression method, which is used where a combination of factors operates (i.e. almost always). Example. One of the important tasks of studying agrarian relations in the Russian village of the 19th century. was to identify the degree of impact of peasant duties and their growth on the state of the peasant economy and its dynamics. In such a situation, the calculation of the regression coefficient is used, which shows the degree of change in the result of a particular development process from a change in the factor (factors) influencing it. The use of the regression method made it possible to obtain indicators characterizing the scale of the impact of the size of duties on the state of the peasant economy. Quantitative analysis operates with numerical data about the phenomena being studied, helps to identify and characterize their important signs and features, i.e. leads to an understanding of their essence, makes this understanding more accurate than with qualitative analysis, or is even the only way to achieve such an understanding.